Eric Mun

Eric Mun (born Mun Jung-Hyuk on February 16, 1979) is a Korean singer and actor. He is a member and leader of the South Korean boy band Shinhwa. He is also well known for several dramas such as Phoenix (2004), Super Rookie (2005) and Another Oh Hae-Young (2016). He was with Top Class Entertainment from 2007 to December 2013. In 2014, Mun and his manager of 10 years, Lee Jong-Hyun, set up a new management agency, E&J Entertainment, for his individual activities. Mun is also the CEO of Shinhwa Company, the home agency of his group, with Lee Min-woo as co-CEO since 2011, and with the remaining members—Kim Dong-wan, Shin Hye-sung, Jun Jin and Andy Lee—as shareholders.

Mun was born in Seoul. He is the youngest of the three siblings with two older sisters. He attended Daechi Elementary School located in Seoul. When his family moved to the U.S, he went to John Burroughs Middle School located in Los Angeles. Mun spent his years of high school at Parks Junior High School and Sunny Hills High School, both of which are located in Fullerton, California. In 1996 he returned to Korea and he joined SM Entertainment as a trainee and was featured as a rapper on label mate girl group S.E.S.' single "I'm Your Girl" along with Andy. On March 24, 1998, with the stage name Eric, he debuted as leader and main rapper of group Shinhwa with their single "해결사" (The Solver) on KM Music Tank. He stated that their debut album, Resolver, did not perform well and the band almost disbanded. At the time, he thought seriously about giving up and returning to the U.S.

In 2005, Mun graduated from Dongguk University with a major in Theater and Film.

2004: start of acting career

In 2002 Mun and his Shinhwa band mates had cameo appearance in the movie Emergency 19 Act. In 2003 director Park Sung Soo cast him in a supporting role for MBC’s series Breathless (I Run). In early 2004, he appeared in the drama Phoenix (Bulsae). A line from the film, “Do you smell anything burning? My heart is burning” was parodied in many dramas and shows.

2005-2006: acting and injury

In 2005, Mun starred in lead role in MBC's Super Rookie with actress Han Ga-in. It was also broadcast on Fuji Television. It got solid rating in Korea during the broadcast. Super Rookie was also a big hit in Japan after Fuji TV paid ₩2 billion for the broadcast rights in Japan. It was commercially successful in Japan when it was broadcast there. In December 2005, Mun went to promote Super Rookie in Japan, where he was greeted at the airport by a large crowd.

In early 2006, Mun was injured on the set of MBC drama Wolf, resulting in it being pulled off air after four episodes. Mun was injured whilst shooting a scene, near Namdaemun in Seoul, where he was to save co-star Han Ji-min from being run over by a car. However the stunt car driver misunderstood the signals drove at them at 40 km/h and did not stop in front of them as planned.

In August, after the successful run of Super Rookie, especially in Japan, Mun collaborated again with its writers in Invincible Parachute Agent (also known as Korea Secret Agency).

2008-2010: Military Enlistment

Shinhwa's 10th Anniversary concert in March 2008, that marked the start of Shinhwa's hiatus as a group to fulfill Korea mandatory military duty. Before his army enlistment, Mun appeared in a period drama for the first time in his acting career with Strongest Chil Woo. With 30 million wons per episode for Strongest Chil Woo, Mun was the highest paid singer-turned-actor in the industry at the time.

Mun gave up his American citizenship in 2003, to be able to serve his military duty. He was the first Shinhwa member to enlist for mandatory military service in October 2008. Because of his back injury from the filming of Wolf drama, Mun served non-active duty e.g. public service worker after undergoing four weeks of basic training. He was discharged on 30 October 2010.

2011: acting and founding of Shinhwa Company

After being discharged, Mun's first project was supposed to be KBS's action drama Poseidon opposite Kim Ok-bin, set for broadcast in July 2011. However they dropped out when production was halted after the Bombardment of Yeonpyeong incident in November 2010. Instead, he appeared in another KBS drama, Spy Myung-wol with Han Ye-seul in July, playing a Korean wave star who is at the center of a kidnap plot by North Korean agents.

On 1 July 2011, Mun became CEO (with Lee Min-woo as co-CEO) of Shinhwa Company, a joint venture agency for members Shinhwa to perform as a group. The Company manages the group as a whole, whilst members' individual activities are managed by their respective agencies.

As part of Top Class Entertainment he produced girl group Stellar, who debuted in August 2011 with the song "Rocket Girl".

2012: Shinhwa reunites

In March 2012, Mun reunited with his Shinhwa band mates for their comeback after four years, under the management of Shinhwa Company. The group released their tenth studio album The Return on 23 March 2012, launched the concerts 2012 Shinhwa Grand Tour: The Return throughout Asia and their first exclusive variety program Shinhwa Broadcast premiered on 17 March 2012 on cable channel JTBC.

Mun's rap is featured on Brown Eyed Girls' Ga In's digital single "Nostalgia", released on 30 November 2012.

2013: Shinhwa tour and leaving Top Class Management

On February 8, 2013, Shinhwa’s agency announced the group’s 2013 Shinhwa Grand Tour: The Classic to commemorate the group’s 15 years since their debut was revealed. The album's name called The Classic.

The concert's tickets were sold out within minutes. Mun along with Shinhwa won many awards in 2013.

December 2013, Mun's contract with Top Class Entertainment came to an end. He did not re-sign another contract with Top Class Entertainment and therefore he's no longer in charge of group Stellar whom he helped the company to produce and promote the original line up.

2014: return to acting

In March 2014, Mun successfully concluded the 16th Anniversary Concerts with Shinhwa. After several casting offers from KBS, Mun returned to televsion in August 2014 with the drama Discovery of Love, which reunites him with Jung Yu-mi, who was his co-star in MBC's 2007 Que Sera, Sera. It was also announced that he had formed his own management company, E&J Entertainment with his manager of 10 years, Lee Jong-hyun.

Despite its average 7% Nielsen rating, Mun and the team of Discovery of Romance drama received critical praise for their acting. Mun won a Triple Crown at KBS' 2014 Year End Award (Excellent Actor, Best Couple, and Netizen Award). With this win, Mun had won acting awards at all three major Broadcasting Networks. In 2015, Discovery of Love was nominated for the 2015 Rockie Award in Melodrama category alongside 30 Vies (Canada), EastEnders (UK), Grey’s Anatomy (USA), My Sunshine (China), and Mysterious Summer (Japan). In an 2015 Instiz discussion post about viewers' favorite drama characters, Mun's Kang Taeha Discovery of Romance stays in top 10 at #6.

2015 - present

Mun released Shinhwa's 12th studio album "WE" in 2015. Shinhwa broke their previous record with 10 wins (a Triple Crown at Mnet's M! Countdown) for this album. Mun and Shinhwa were on concert tour starting in May 2015 and ended with an Encore concert in Seoul in August. Shinhwa also performed at KCON LA for the first time in early August of that year.

In 2016, Mun appeared in the South Korean TV cable (tvN) drama Another Oh Hae-young with Seo Hyun-jin. The drama is currently the highest rated Monday-Tuesday drama in TvN history. At tvN10 Awards on October 9, Mun was awarded the title of "Ro-co King". Seo Hyunjin was also crowned Ro-co Queen.

On September 16, in a preview for the new season of tvN "Three Meals a Day", Mun joined as a cast member for Season 3 of Three Meals A Day - Fishing Village with Lee Seo-jin and Yoon Kyun-sang. The season of Fishing Village was filmed at Deukryang Island. The season premiere was on October 14.

Television series

Movies

Variety Shows